Jason Garrett says his biggest regret from the Dez Bryant catch controversy has nothing to do with the ruling itself. More than 11 years after the Cowboys’ painful playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers, the former Dallas head coach says what still sticks with him is not how the officials handled the play, but what he didn’t say afterward.
Garrett revisited the moment on The Rich Eisen Show, and he made clear that his postgame approach was consistent with the standard he preached inside the locker room. “We always talked about no excuses, no explanations, and you just take full responsibility,” Garrett said. He added that he does not regret standing by that philosophy after the game.
What he does regret is failing to give the play itself the praise he thinks it deserved.
Garrett said Tony Romo’s throw and Bryant’s contested grab were worthy of much more attention than they got in the aftermath. Instead, the entire conversation shifted almost immediately to the replay review that wiped the catch away.
“I thought it was one for the ages,” Garrett said. He compared it to Terry Bradshaw’s touchdown pass to Lynn Swann in Super Bowl X, and said he never fully expressed how special the sequence was.
The play was first ruled a completion before Green Bay challenged it. Officials overturned the call after determining Bryant had not completed the process of the catch under the NFL rule in place at the time. Dallas then turned the ball over on downs, and the Packers finished off the win.
The league later changed the catch rule, removing the requirement that was at the center of Bryant’s overturned reception. Even so, the argument around the play has never really gone away.
Garrett also said he does not know whether Jerry Jones contacted the NFL after the game.
For Garrett, the memory that lingers now is not the replay review itself. It is the feeling that one of the best throws and catches in Cowboys history became known mostly for the decision that erased it.
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